Seasonality etc part 2

Why these cycles? It is not uncommon in disease.

Many disorders show seasonality, but it is seldom explained. In an article in Medical hypotheses the authors (1) suggest that “temporal variations of autonomic balance” affect disease. What they essentially suggest is an expansion of the Th1/Th2 balance hypothesis of disease (which is a convenient simplification). If the immune system is over-balanced towards Th1 response (aka parasympathetic activity, Th1 bias, innate or [intra-]cellular immunity) it supposedly responds well to cancer cells, viruses, yeasts and intracellular pathogens but less well to extracellular pathogens. On the other hand auto-immune disease is more common.

If on the other hand immune response is prevalently Th2 (aka sympathetic activity, Th2 bias, adaptive or humoral immunity) it combats bacteria and extracellular organisms. But allergy and asthma is more common.

Th1/Th2 response shows a circadian rhythm with Th1 prevalence during sleep and Th2 prevalence during daytime. Diseases more common / worse during daytime (thus worsening because of increased Th2 and decreased Th1 response) are e.g. stroke, arrhythmias, seizures, sepsis and asthma. A seasonal pattern of increased Th2 bias during winter and Th1 bias during summer is also postulated.

Disease disrupting sleep will dampen Th1 response and thus worsen disorders affected by this.

They also suggest that Th1 bias is stronger in childhood and senescence (old age).

Their ideas are interesting as CPPS causes sleep disruption, remits during summer and is more common in mid-life. All of which suggest that Th2 bias worsens CPPS.

I’ll get back to this topic when discussing vitamin D, sleep and the HPA axis.

Andra bloggar om CPPS, kroniskt bäckenbottensmärtsyndrom, kronisk abakteriell prostatit, NIHIIIb, biologiska rytmer, Th1/Th2-balans
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(1) Medical Hypotheses 63(1):155-177, 2004. Articles by AJ Yun, PY Lee and KA Bazar.